What I learned being a temp for a year in a fast paced, high stress & dangerous work environment

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I will officially be hired on at my job. I started working at one of Americas biggest steel suppliers almost a year ago through a staffing agency. The 15th of this month will actually be 1 year. Until recently I didn't even know there are places that will keep someone a temp for this long. I always thought it was 90 days and you either get hired or fired. Come to find out, a lot of production type union jobs will keep you a temp for YEARS.

When I found myself unemployed I was a bit worried. I had just relocated for my last job cross country and signed a new lease. I had little savings and my car died. It wasn't much to begin with, so it was not worth fixing. I was unemployed with no car. The owner of the company was known for fighting tooth and nail to not pay unemployment. The three weeks it took for it to get approved and kick in were pretty stressful.

In the mean time, I ran around to over ten staffing agencies. I updated my resume and made sure to show up bright eyed and bushy tailed to each one. A couple sent me for little side jobs, but it did not seem promising. Unemployment kicked in and I even got a weeks back pay. I made decent money at my last job, so the weekly check was just enough to get by. Suddenly I felt a little less stress. If I was smart with my money, I could pay my rent and bills for the next 6 months.

I started turning down the lame one or two day gigs. I turned down a couple full time jobs because the money wasn't right. I spruced up my resume a little more. By spruce up, I of course mean lie a little. In the end, you're only one person showing you how to do something new away from being able to do something you can't right now. I went to a couple more staffing agencies.

After being unemployed for a month I get a call from the very last staffing agency I applied at. I hear, "There is a full time temp-to-hire job, it pays the least you said you would work for, but it's a great company, I'm forwarding you the info now." I said, great and that I would look into it. So I did. After digging around on the internet I found that the lady was telling me the truth, it did seem like a great company. I called her back and told her I could start tomorrow. She said awesome, show up in jeans, a plain t shirt, and steel toe boots.

My first day there I was getting trained by another temp. He seemed to know his stuff, so I asked him how long he has been a temp there. "Two years." I asked him if he's gotten a raise, "No raise." I thought about going home for lunch and not coming back. I even did the math in my head and found out I was making less than $50 a week more than unemployment was paying me. Oh, and did I mention the job is in a warehouse with no air conditioning in a state where it's over 100 degrees all summer long?

I decided to stick it out. Surely If I ask the hired on employees they will explain a faster way. After that first day I walked to the bus stop a block away. The job really put me through it, I was beat. When I went to get on the bus, the driver looked me up and down and said, "you don't have to pay, man." I was too exhausted to explain that I was not homeless and even had a 30 day unlimited bus pass. I put my wallet away and just said thanks.

Grrr.... I tried to highlight a sentence and move it to a different part of the paragraph. This whole screen went blank. I try to copy as I go every couple paragraphs in case that happens. Guess I forgot. I was just about done and now I only have half of the blog. It was pretty long and I have to get to bed. It might be better in two parts anyway. Tomorrow I will re-finish it.